Abu Dhabi Aims to Replicate Las Vegas Sphere Success with New Immersive Institution

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The Emirati capital will construct an impressive edifice designed to host massive stadium-scale concerts and sizable video installations, created by top digital artists.

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Sphere, the massive immersive venue that stole the limelight when it opened in September 2023 in Las Vegas with concerts by U2 and expositions by the artists Es Devlin, Marco Brambilla, John Gerrard, and Refik Anadol, is being launched in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, under the auspices of the Department of Culture and Tourism-Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi).

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"The vision for Sphere has always included a global network of venues," James L. Dolan, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Sphere Entertainment, stated after the announcement. "Sphere is redefining live entertainment and extending the reach of its transformative impact. We are proud to collaborate with DCT Abu Dhabi to develop Sphere in their city."

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Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, added, "We are excited to partner with Sphere Entertainment to bring Sphere to Abu Dhabi, offering our residents and visitors a brand-new form of entertainment. Sphere Abu Dhabi will seamlessly integrate advanced technology with captivating storytelling, creating unforgettable memories for everyone who visits."

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The first Sphere is a massive $2.3 billion, 365-foot-tall, 20,000-seat dome in Nevada's desert gaming paradise and is one of the iconic examples of a global phenomenon singled out by The Art Newspaper in February 2024 as "immersive institutions," which stands to revolutionize the art world and its business model while creating a new style of urban architecture.

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During an interview with The Art Newspaper, Brambilla emotionally described the rare challenge and opportunity posed by the vastness of Sphere, for which he created King Size last year, a video narration of the rise of Las Vegas and death of Elvis Presley that is immersive in nature.

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"The first surprise, "he said, "was how at Sphere that canvas, a mesh of tens of thousands of LEDs, was an absolute absorption of image in a way I have never seen before." So he realized that his footage had to be more complex than it was for Outernet immersive institution in London and other places; he used AI based on some files from previous video collages: "AI helped populate the canvas with much, much more imagery," he explained. "It would have taken months and a team of editors to arrive at this."

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"Have you visited the sphere?" Vice President Kamala Harris asked during a 9 October interview on the Howard Stern Show, describing the scale and intensity of the experience while telling him about attending a U2 concert there. Everyone is supposed to come in with a clear mind ..." Harris said. "You mean don't be all high," Stern interjected. "Exactly," Harris said, "because it's so much, quite a lot of visual stimulation is there."

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The team behind Sphere, including Madison Square Garden Entertainment, saw its global ambitions thwarted last year. In November 2023, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, blocked the construction of a new MSG Sphere on the scale of the Vegas dome in East London at the edge of Olympic Park. Sphere Entertainment's spokesperson criticized the ruling, telling architectural mag AJ: If we are disappointed about London's decision, there are many forward-looking cities that want to embrace this technology to enrich their communities. We will concentrate on those.

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Another big player in the field of immersive institutions, teamLab--a Japanese collective of artists, programmers, and more-has just opened new teamLab Borderless, in the Azabudai Hills District in Tokyo this February and is expanding internationally into such cities as Hamburg, Germany--has its 17,000 sq.m site almost completed: teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi in the Saadiyat cultural district of the city.

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